April 14th, 2009

Our first big project on the yard began with a deafening crash! 10 tons rock makes a lot of noise falling from the bed of a dump truck!

Then the dirt arrived...

50 cubic yards of topsoil, enough to raise the overall elevation of the backyard 16 inches, was brought in by 4 huge trucks. When they were gone, we had 4 small mountains of dirt in our driveway.

And then the Bobcat arrived! The T190 tracked loader weighs 7700 lbs, can carry two tons, and speeds along at a hair-blowing 7 mph. I should also mention that it has TRACKS. Driving this mechanical wonder was way too much fun. Waaaaaaay too much fun.

Click on the image below, to download the short film: "Backyard Blitzkrieg".

This phase of the landscaping essentially involved removing all unwanted shrubbery from the back yard, raising the height of the rock retaining wall by 24 inches, and in-filling the yard to create a more level surface. We got all this done in 3 days. Thank you, Ross!!

Next, we'll be building a fence made of "ipe" wood -a tropical hardwood resistant to mold, moss, and pests. The fence will keep the kid(s) from falling off the edge of the yard, and will also look cool.

Here's a photo that comes pretty close to what the fence will look like...

In other news, we celebrated Easter with Elliot, and he got to hunt for eggs around the house. He also found a huge easter basket full of goodies.

It was an awesome weekend.

-Rob and Nicole

The first of 4 truckloads, within minutes, our driveway would be home to 50 yards of warm smelly dirt.

Some of the work was a bit precarious. Luckily, the Bobcat comes with seatbelts and AC, yes air conditioning.

No longer able to just stand and watch, Elliot convinces us to let him "drive" for a bit.

Ross takes a breather and surveys the wall progress, while his boots get all the attention.

Here's the new wall on top of the old wall. After year or so, the colors will match. Hopefully.

Elliot dips and colors his Easter eggs the day before his big hunt.

Grandma helps him color his eggs.

He finds his basket!

He tries out his new tops.

"Ok, can somebody run and see if anyone is selling one of these on Craigslist? I think we could use one pretty regularly around here. Seriously."

Ross gets to drive for a bit while Rob does the fun part: lugging the insanely-heavy chain around.

We used it for all kinds of things, like ripping out the old dead hot tub. We even used it to lift the hot tub into my pickup. I'm sure if we buy one, we could think of more uses for it.

The awesome tracks in the dirt. Too cool not to photograph.

Apparently, the best Bobcat drivers are people who play a lot of video games and are male, between the ages of 30 and 40... and have a natural fondness for things with tracks.

This image shows the old wall, with all the random shrubs and debris.

This image shows the new wall, sans random ugly shrub things, and assorted debris. Those with sharp eyes may also notice I included the Bobcat in this photo, because of how special it is.

The next day is Easter, and the hunt is on

Kissing the baby chick.

Jacqueline reads him one of his new books.

Kissing his Easter card.